


He Who Has Patience

by FujurPreux



Category: Seirei no Moribito
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-14
Updated: 2010-04-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 23:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujurPreux/pseuds/FujurPreux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Balsa and Tanda's first meeting when they're children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Who Has Patience

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 'a creek' prompt of the [story_lottery](http://community.livejournal.com/story_lottery/) challenge @ LJ.

Today's lesson was very important and Tanda was adequately nervous. And excited, although he tried not to show it; Torogai would tease him mercilessly if she ever noticed it.

Today would be the first time Tanda would be allowed to use real shamanic skills. Up until then, all he'd learned was the name of the plants that grew in the mountain range, which parts of them were useful and when, and how to grind them. All of that was quite well, but it was something anyone could learn with the proper effort. Today would be very different.

The boy spent all morning trying to stay still. He even refrained from hurrying Torogai when it looked like she was taking far too long with breakfast, and from shaking her when she closed her eyes for long enough it seemed she was going to take a nap. Finally, Torogai stood up. "Let's go, boy," she said and went outside. Tanda followed her swiftly.

Torogai led the way from their hut to a creek. She sat down not to far away from it and folded her arms. Tanda did the same in front of her and waited even though he had barely any patience left. He tried focusing on the nature around them: the wind through the tree tops above them; the chirping of the birds; the sound of the water in the creek; the freshness of the grass blades he was twisting with his fingers...

Torogai spoke suddenly, startling him. "We've talked about this before."

Tanda nodded. He'd spent night upon night listening to Torogai talking about Nayug and how it affected Sagu. Some of her stories were downright scary while others were just plain funny--yet, Tanda shouldn't laugh unless he was willing to receive a smack in the head--but all of them were marvelous. Tanda couldn't wait anymore to start having his own stories about Nayug to tell.

"Then you should know what to do," Torogai continued and motioned Tanda to move closer to the creek. "Go on."

Tanda blinked. He expected a somewhat longer introduction to the matter at hand. But, apparently, he was going to have to extrapolate from what he'd been told. He stood up and moved towards the creek as he tried to remember the stories exactly, word by word. He walked slowly, allowing himself time to think. Torogai didn't seem to mind.

Once by the creek, Tanda knelt down. Pretty sure he'd gotten it, he took a deep breath and submerged his head in the water.

Nothing happened. Nothing at all, even if by the time Tanda took himself out, he was in dire need of air.

"Mmm. Thought as much," Torogai said, watching his student gasp. She got up. "Keep doing it until something happens or I come back for you."

Tanda pursed his lips for a second. "Yes," he said and got himself ready for another try. He didn't hear Torogai's footsteps as she walked away, but he knew she had gone. He wondered briefly where would she go and how long would it take her to come back, but he shook this thoughts away. He needed to focus entirely on his task.

 

Tanda had lost count of how many times he'd lost his breath under the water. Part of him thought he didn't really want to know because each try was as fruitless as the one before. But he wasn't going to give up. Of course not. He'd have communicated with Nayug at least once before Torogai returned. He took yet another deep breath and submerged himself again.

Nothing happened again. He let himself fall down on the grass as he gasped. This was proving to be harder than he'd thought at first.

"What are you doing?" said a voice right next to him. Tanda looked up to see a girl about his age. She wasn't Yakue, but she didn't seem to be from Yogo either. "Did you lose something? You've been at that for a while."

Despite being soaking wet, Tanda felt his face warm up. "Of course not!" he said. "I was--" He stopped. He wasn't sure if he could talk about his lessons with a stranger.

"What?" the girl asked, looking at him intently, apparently oblivious at his discomfort.

He let himself fall on the grass again and looked up to the sky. "You wouldn't understand."

She adopted a thoughtful look and sat down right next to him. "Of course I won't if you don't explain. But, whatever it was, it looked important."

Tanda didn't reply.

"My name is Balsa," the girl said. Tanda glanced at her. She was smiling, and--Tanda admitted reluctantly to himself--she had a pretty smile.

He sat up. "I'm Tanda. What are you doing up here in the mountains?"

"Jiguro thought this would be a safe passage."

"It is, if you know the paths. Has... Jiguro been here before."

"I don't know. But even if he hasn't, he'll find them."

Balsa looked so convinced of what she'd said that Tanda didn't have the heart to tell her that those who were overconfident of their skills were the firsts to suffer an undesirable fate. He only hoped she wouldn't find about it the hard way. "Where is Jiguro?" he asked instead. Perhaps he'd be able to persuade this individual to ask for Torogai's help.

"We caught a rabbit, so he's picking up some wood."

"I see. Um. Do you want me to show you some herbs that would make it taste really good?"

"Oh?"

"You'll see! Come on!" Tanda said as he stood up and offer her his hand. She hesitated for a second before taking it. It was like if she wasn't used to those things.

 

A while later, Balsa was on her way to be properly instructed about the use of aromatic herbs on rabbit meat when Torogai showed up. Or more like it was then that Tanda noticed she was there.

"Hmm," she said. "Those are good. Pick some more roots and bring them to the hut, Tanda."

Balsa looked at Tanda questioningly, but he was as much in the dark as her.

Then, a tall man appeared from the bushes. A dead rabbit was hanging down his shoulder.

"Jiguro!" Balsa greeted him.

The man nodded in acknowledgement. "Shaman Torogai invited us to spend the night in her hut."

Balsa turned to Torogai and bowed her head. "Thank you very much."

Predictably, Torogai hand-waved it and hurried Balsa and Jiguro to the hut. "You go ahead, I need to exchange a few words with my student."

Jiguro bowed his head and led the way, followed by Balsa.

Tanda stiffened up and prepared himself. He hadn't followed Torogai's instructions and that meant he was going to be scolded. He closed his eyes as soon as Torogai spoke.

"Did you succeed contacting Nayug, Tanda?"

He sighed. "No, I did not."

She nodded. "Hmm hmm. Well, you'll try other day. Come on. I'm hungry and that rabbit looked young and tender."

Tanda blinked. Torogai kept doing unexpected things, yes, but this... "But--" he began before he could help himself.

She kept on walking. "I told you to stop when something happened. Well, the arrival of that girl was something that happened."

"I... I see," Tanda mumbled.

Torogai laughed. "No, you don't. But you will. You need to be more patient, Tanda. This things are very difficult and hurry them is always a mistake."

Tanda reflected deeply upon that. Yes, he probably needed to be more patient. As they reached the hut, he promised himself he would work on it, along with the rest of his lessons. After all, he thought as he saw Balsa's smile again, they did say that patience conquers all.


End file.
